A forum for those current students who are or may be transferring from one school to another. Post any questions, advice, or other transfer related comments here.

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Anonymous posting is only available to the creator of each thread. The anonymous posting feature is intended to permit the solicitation of anonymous advice regarding the transfer application process, chances of being accepted, etc. Unacceptable uses include: testing the feature, questions which are clearly fake or hypothetical in nature, harassing other users, etc. Posters should also read and understand the announcements posted at the top of the Transfers forum prior to using the anonymous feature.

P.S. OP's poll has "stay put & ask for more $$$" as an option. How can anyone assess this option without knowing OP's current law school & the liklihood of getting biglaw in one of his/her desired locations ?

CanadianWolf wrote:Next time I'll type slower so that you can catch on.

P.S. OP's poll has "stay put & ask for more $$$" as an option. How can anyone assess this option without knowing OP's current law school & the liklihood of getting biglaw in one of his/her desired locations ?

I do think some more info could possibly be helpful, but what I was reacting to is that you asked for him/her to out the school. I just had the experience of realizing that I was outed recently, so I may be sensitive to this (I suspected I had outed myself by the detailed posts I have made, but it was still a rather rude awakening to have someone bring stuff up IRL that I had posted on here, without initially even disclosing where he/she was getting the info).

OP did provide enough background that I think makes reasonable advice possible. Placement from pretty much all of the lower T1s into biglaw sucks right now, often even toward the very top of lower T1 classes (just found out the extent to which this is true recently). But yeah, more info does generally help with giving more tailored advice. It is just that at a certain point (especially for small schools) outing becomes a factor.

I'd trade up to Vandy. Transferring is good for you in this spot, bottom line. Re: UCLA v Vandy, international reputation and prestige is pretty meaningless and I'm not sure why it matters since it does nothing for obtaining you a BigLaw job. In the cities you have presented (NYC, Chicago, LA, Nashville), Vandy has the advantage except in LA though you can still get there.

Asking to identify the law school of a poster using a first-time alt (fred_flintstone) when the identity of the law school is necessary to offer a reasonable response , is hardly an invasion of one's privacy. However, since OP's second post in this thread uses his non-alt user name, I know the current law school & can offer a response that is based on more than partially informed guesswork.

Transfer. Either UCLA or Vanderbilt is likely to offer substantially better career opportunities. Since your current law school is not located in or near any of your target markets & is much lower ranked, then UCLA & Vanderbilt offer a higher liklihood of breaking into your target markets. Since one of your target markets is Nashville, then Vanderbilt is a strong option. UCLA obviously places better in LA--another of your target markets. Chicago & NYC are ultra-competitive so they are not likely without a very high class rank & law review, therefore OP's decision should be based on his preference for either LA or Nashville, in my opinion.

CanadianWolf wrote:Asking to identify the law school of a poster using a first-time alt (fred_flintstone) when the identity of the law school is necessary to offer a reasonable response , is hardly an invasion of one's privacy. However, since OP's second post in this thread uses his non-alt user name, I know the current law school & can offer a response that is based on more than partially informed guesswork.

Transfer. Either UCLA or Vanderbilt is likely to offer substantially better career opportunities. Since your current law school is not located in or near any of your target markets & is much lower ranked, then UCLA & Vanderbilt offer a higher liklihood of breaking into your target markets. Since one of your target markets is Nashville, then Vanderbilt is a strong option. UCLA obviously places better in LA--another of your target markets. Chicago & NYC are ultra-competitive so they are not likely without a very high class rank & law review, therefore OP's decision should be based on his preference for either LA or Nashville, in my opinion.

Actually, Nashville requires ties and is notoriously difficult to get. His chances of getting Nashville are pretty much zero without them. Chicago & NYC are by far the least competitive markets due to the sheer size of the legal markets. It's well known that BigLaw is easiest to get in NYC and NYC BigLaw interviews down to median at Vandy.

NYC competes with the entire Top 14 & the top law students from other law schools. What % of Vandy students land NYC biglaw ?

Chicago is a much smaller legal market than NYC. Candidates face competition from the nation's top law schools including hometown Northwestern & Chicago.

If placement in Nashville requires more than doing well at Vanderbilt Law, then that is a closed market & OP should consider Atlanta instead.

Based on info. supplied by the above poster, I vote for UCLA (even though the above poster sees it differently). If Nashville were a reasonable option from Vandy, then my vote would depend upon OP's preference between LA & Nashville.

If you are interested in working in NYC, Contact UCLA's Office of Career Services about its New York interviewing program. It is on August 19 in New York, and according to an e-mail sent to UCLA students, the deadline to bid is July 15. That deadline might be different for transfers, but if it is not, then make sure you participate in that program in addition to the on-campus interview program.

CanadianWolf wrote:Asking to identify the law school of a poster using a first-time alt (fred_flintstone) when the identity of the law school is necessary to offer a reasonable response , is hardly an invasion of one's privacy. However, since OP's second post in this thread uses his non-alt user name, I know the current law school & can offer a response that is based on more than partially informed guesswork.

I disagree that naming the individual school is or was necessary to give good advice.

CanadianWolf wrote:Asking to identify the law school of a poster using a first-time alt (fred_flintstone) when the identity of the law school is necessary to offer a reasonable response , is hardly an invasion of one's privacy. However, since OP's second post in this thread uses his non-alt user name, I know the current law school & can offer a response that is based on more than partially informed guesswork.

Transfer. Either UCLA or Vanderbilt is likely to offer substantially better career opportunities. Since your current law school is not located in or near any of your target markets & is much lower ranked, then UCLA & Vanderbilt offer a higher liklihood of breaking into your target markets. Since one of your target markets is Nashville, then Vanderbilt is a strong option. UCLA obviously places better in LA--another of your target markets. Chicago & NYC are ultra-competitive so they are not likely without a very high class rank & law review, therefore OP's decision should be based on his preference for either LA or Nashville, in my opinion.

Actually, Nashville requires ties and is notoriously difficult to get. His chances of getting Nashville are pretty much zero without them. Chicago & NYC are by far the least competitive markets due to the sheer size of the legal markets. It's well known that BigLaw is easiest to get in NYC and NYC BigLaw interviews down to median at Vandy.

Yep re: NYC being one of the easiest places to break biglaw (as far as I know).

But is Nashville really that difficult to break from Vandy, or just notoriously difficult in general? Because I think Vandy does place reasonably well into Nashville; I would guess at least on par with any T14, since it is in fact in Nashville.

CanadianWolf wrote:Asking to identify the law school of a poster using a first-time alt (fred_flintstone) when the identity of the law school is necessary to offer a reasonable response , is hardly an invasion of one's privacy. However, since OP's second post in this thread uses his non-alt user name, I know the current law school & can offer a response that is based on more than partially informed guesswork.

Transfer. Either UCLA or Vanderbilt is likely to offer substantially better career opportunities. Since your current law school is not located in or near any of your target markets & is much lower ranked, then UCLA & Vanderbilt offer a higher liklihood of breaking into your target markets. Since one of your target markets is Nashville, then Vanderbilt is a strong option. UCLA obviously places better in LA--another of your target markets. Chicago & NYC are ultra-competitive so they are not likely without a very high class rank & law review, therefore OP's decision should be based on his preference for either LA or Nashville, in my opinion.

Actually, Nashville requires ties and is notoriously difficult to get. His chances of getting Nashville are pretty much zero without them. Chicago & NYC are by far the least competitive markets due to the sheer size of the legal markets. It's well known that BigLaw is easiest to get in NYC and NYC BigLaw interviews down to median at Vandy.

Yep re: NYC being one of the easiest places to break biglaw (as far as I know).

But is Nashville really that difficult to break from Vandy, or just notoriously difficult in general? Because I think Vandy does place reasonably well into Nashville; I would guess at least on par with any T14, since it is in fact in Nashville.

Vandy places well in Nashville in the sense that Vandy alums run that city. But on top of grades it requires extensive ties to the area that certain primary markets don't require. So it is notoriously difficult in general due to the fact that it is a smaller legal market in a vibrant city with a low cost of living. Merely attending Vandy is not enough of a 'tie' to get good looks at OCI, nor is attending a T14 sufficient. I suggest you contact Vandy alums and OCS who can confirm this. It's also pretty well known that NYC is by far the easiest market to break into. Chicago is rather decent as well.

You can't go wrong with going to UCLA or Vandy but I don't think Nashville is really a viable option that you can bank on. To be honest it's also particularly difficult to get LA BigLaw (due to the state of the legal market there ITE) although that requires less ties than Nashville. General transfer consensus is that re: OCI placement you should consider yourself median at the school you are transferring to. Under that guideline, I'm not sure LA BigLaw is a lock at either school.

Last edited by stylishlaw on Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

I want to point out that I am headed to Vandy in the fall with hopes of getting NYC BigLaw. It's NYC or bust for me so outside of money considerations I made my decision with that in mind after doing extensive research. However, I'm not trying to troll for my school here... just pointing out that 1) Nashville without ties is not realistic and 2) Regardless of which school you transfer to, the important thing is that you do transfer up because it appears to be statistically significant. And without currently having a big scholarship or LR, you have nothing to lose.

So you're a 1L transferring to Vandy in the fall for your 2L year?

Because if you're an 0L starting at Vanderbilt in the Fall, there's a sticky about that.